The Karate Kid is a name to itself, a franchise about family, the underdog triumphing and bullies being bested. It’s about mentors giving guidance in life, but also having apprentices showing them also how to live.
Star Wars and The Karate Kid are closer in respects than you might think, especially when it comes to the hero’s journey as both as influenced by Joseph Campbell. We followed the stories of Luke Skywalker, as in Karate Kid it’s Daniel LaRusso.
There are fun stories to watch and are clean cut in terms of villains and heroes, light and dark, good and evil. You know where they all stand, and where they have to go in order to become the thing they need to conquer the evil.
The Karate Kid I never thought of this way in the mid eighties when it came out on VHS and showed us the awesomeness of the script. It seems simple, and efficient, in terms of story and plot, but the world building, the back story, the characters motives are so well drawn out that it equals Star Wars.
Look at the characters:
Miyagi: is the classic Merlin role, like Kenobi he comes in to teach the hero what they need to know to vanquish the demon. He like Kenobi is an unassuming leader, mentor role, as even Kenobi was a “strange old hermit”. It falls in line also with Yoda, as its kind of a trickster role, in that Daniel like Luke don’t know it that they’re being trained from the start, and don’t know just what it means to be trained.
Sato: is the hero of the prequel era, and the villain of the new, as he was Miyagi’s friend and student of his fathers. He was the Darth Vader of the trilogy. His turn, and it’s all about sacrifices and heroism, but it’s brought about by the compassion of LaRusso saving the child. He sees the error in his ways and repents by helping Miyagi.
Daniel LaRusso: he’s the Luke, the callow youth with a chip on his shoulder, waiting for his moment to shine. His call to adventure begins with the move from New Jersey to Los Angeles, where he encounters all of the gateways a hero just face as their trials.
Johnny Lawrence: the classic foil to the hero, Darth Vader to an Emperor, he is the henchman of the piece, and leads his minions the students of Cobra Kai against the lone Karate-Ka.
John Kreese: is the evil Lord, nothing even remotely is nice about this guy, and is more akin to the Emperor, as much as he and Miyagi are opposites, the dynamic is more along the lines of Palpatine versus Yoda. One is all about power, strength and the corruption of leadership while the other is positive, at peace, powerful yet avoids and deflects violence in the way a Jedi might.
I find it interesting that both the teacher and pupil are both named John. Like the pupil has a choice, whether to follow the leaders way or not.
The Last Jedi is a good example, as we see Luke realise he has to sacrifice all that he knows to be the mythic hero for which future generations of force powered individuals must act, as he does his force projection and simply irritates Kylo Ren in a battle on Crait which is a fake encounter, to bolster time for the Resistance to get away. It’s a classic power versus peace moment, where Luke dodges with ease each attack, to the point that Kylo Ren has no clue it’s merely an apparition. Luke has simply toyed with him, and been far away on Ahch-To.
Karate Kid Part 2: has the same scene in the film’s opening, as we see the characters leaving the championship Kreese begins to beat up Johnny, and destroy his own trophy, which forces Miyagi into action, as he is then attacked by Sensei Kreese between two cars. Each time he tries to strike in anger, Miyagi moves out of the way and Kreese punches two car windows, covering his hands in glass. Fallen to the ground, Miyagi readies the strike with the lines: “Mercy is for the weak. We don train to be merciful here.” And then strikes him with an under hand, falling short of his nose. Then jokingly honks the nose! When Daniel asks why he didn’t kill him, he said in return that for some people it’s harder to live in shame than to die.
This is in line with the code of the Jedi, and with it, the way of myth.
Stay tuned over the next few months as we will see the return of some of these characters in the series sequel: Cobra Kai.